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March 2010

Energy

Peak Oil back in the news

The world’s oil reserves have been exaggerated by about  33%, according to Sir David King, the UK Government’s former chief scientist, who warns of shortages and price spikes within years. 2014 is the likely year he says when demand exceeds new supply.

King and a research team from Oxford University say it is an open secret that OPEC is likely to have inflated its reserves, but that the International Energy Agency (IEA), BP, the Energy Information Administration and World Oil do not take this into account in their statistics. Their new research argues that estimates of conventional reserves should be downgraded from 1,150bn to 1,350bn barrels to between 850bn and 900bn barrels and claims that demand may outstrip supply as early as 2014.
The paper also raises concerns that public statistics have started to incorporate non-conventional reserves
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Spirit

From soft porn to Disney doc

A former soft porn writer and her film director husband have developed “a passion for living off-grid after three years in the middle of the African desert,” reports The Daily Express.

British-born film director Matt Aeberhard and his wife Melanie Finn spent three years living in a stone house formerly occupied by missionaries on a hilltop in the Tanzanian wilderness to make Disneynature’s first and documentary about flamingos,Crimson Wing.

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Energy

Waitrose to open first ‘off-grid’ store

One of the UK’s most successful retailers ,The John Lewis Partnership, which owns Waitrose supermarkets and John Lewis department stores, is to open its first ‘off-grid’ (his words) retail store, this year.

It will be located in the Isle of Wight, Charlie Mayfield, Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership said in private talks at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Summit in London today The store will be large —  between 15,000 and 20,000 sq ft. and powered by a mix of technologies, including combined heat and power.

Mayfield said the new off-grid store would deliver carbon savings of 60 per cent compared to one opened “two or three years ago”.

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Better Off

If you cannot wait until Earth Hour on 27 March to switch off power in your house, try making this weekend your  Power Off Weekend.  That is what a group in the UK are doing.  The Power Off movement  chooses random weekends to switch off all power (yes, including the freezer), and play games by candlelight.

“Power Off is all about having time to have fun, play games, talk to people, have friends and neighbours round, spend time with your children,” says Malcolm, who has started the Touchwood project in the Orkneys to popularise the idea.  Of course if you turn off the power in the Orkneys at night, then it gets really dark, unlike London. But the freezer wont melt in a single weekend because its normally too cold.

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Community

Off the grid living a “top ten” idea

Support from Reihan Salam

Time Magazine has called living off the grid “one of the most important ideas of the next ten years.”

Time  Managing Editor Richard Stengel, says of the article “this isn’t a matter of just scaling back but also of reconceiving how we live. “   Reihan Salam writes about how in the 2010s, more and more people will live off the grid, working in a new underground economy that will fill in the gaps of the old one. In a separate article in the special issue,  Christopher Hayes writes passionately that “it’s not just the market that has changed. The entire edifice of trust in authority that supported American life has been shaken.

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Off-grid real estate, Phoenix

On March 13, 2010, bidders will have a rare chance to acquire Vulture Ranch, a sprawling 80 acre compound, and “an absolute jewel among Arizona real estate” locals claim. Opening bid is only $250,000.

Just 60 miles northwest of Phoenix, Vulture Ranch is a self-contained, off the grid Arizona real estate complex on the Sonoron Desert. It’s highlight is a nearly 5,000 square foot 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom main house and features four guest suites and two cottages. Vulture Ranch has a large reception hall, opening onto a perfectly landscaped courtyard. It’s a rare find on the real estate auction market.

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Beware of 1BOG

The company recently raised $5m, a step forward  in its aim to become a major corporate player in the solar panel  market.  But this tiny start up is making some inflated claims.

1BOG sounds to British ears like a good name for a toilet.

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Land

Time to buy an island

The Greek government is being urged to sell its uninhabited islands to bail itself out of bankruptcy, and the UK is likely to find itself in the same position in the near future.  What better time to explore the possibility of buying an island together with a group of friends, and setting up an off-grid community there with your own laws, government and even currency?

Interested parties should advertise themselves on LandBuddy, indicating roughly where they want to go on the Google Map that is part of the free service.

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Community

Off the Grid and the prepared

So, just what does that mean? I can tell you from personal experience and from the responses I have received from people over the years that it definitely has different meanings to different people. From living completely without any utilities, no electricity, water or gas (think hunter’s cabin, wood stove, candles or kerosene lamps, no running water…), to generating one or more of these items on site yourself (think solar panels, wind power, methane digester…), I even had one person say that for him, living “off the grid” meant living so remotely that the government couldn’t find you, essentially hiding from the world. For some people it brings up a picture of a hermit living in a shack on a remote location, others envision a state of the art home that independently takes care of the needs of all occupants from food and water to electricity.

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Energy

Monbiot anti-micropower rant is anti-green

Everybody in UK eco-circles is talking about George Monbiot this week, which is just the way he likes it.

George Monbiot is an unashamed cheerleader for big power – his column in the Guardian has previously come out in favor of large nuclear power stations, and this week he spoke out against micro-generation.  George Monbiot is also in favor of large, centralised wind farms and other forms of renewable energy, and sets himself firmly against micro-generation –which he caricatures as a middle class subsidy.

The occasion for his latest outburst was the introduction of the UK government-backed Feed-in tariff (FiT), which will reward householders and others who generate renewable energy back into the grid.  Ignoring the fact that the FiT was enormously successful in Germany, which has become a European leader in micro-generation,  “the only renewables policy that makes sense,” says George, “ is to build big installations where the energy is – which means high ground, estuaries or the open sea – and deliver it by wire to where people live.”

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Events

Off-grid Olympians

American Olympic snowboarder Hannah Teter has returned to Vermont — to live in her yurt. “Mom has a huge garden and fruit trees,” she told People magazine “and I love it there.

“I helped my parents get solar power this past year, and I’ll be running on solar and hopefully wind power with my yurt so I can be completely off the grid.”

Meanwhile, Olympic gold medalist skateboarder Shaun White says he is anxious to return to his 1969 Volkswagen Van.

Hannah Teter, however, is the off-grid flavor of the month.

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